Sarina Wiegman insists her Lionesses are strong enough not to be scared about previous failures.
England will face a fourth major semi final in seven years when they tackle Sweden in the Euros at Bramall Lane with the whole nation behind them. They are determined to reach the final at Wembley next Sunday and banish the nightmares of losing the semi finals of their last three major tournaments.
But England boss Wiegman says the squad is strong enough mentally to deal with the pressure and not worry about previous failures. Wiegman said: “I think it’s necessary to be in the now, it’s important to learn from your experiences and what happened in the past. But there’s no point in looking back because it’s now and we’re in the now.
“The mentality has always been good and I’ve only seen strong mentality since I came in last September. The resilience has been really good and the confidence in the team has grown.
“Reaching the semi final is already great already. The fans have given us so much inspiration already and I hope we can get the result we want. I hope they can give us lots of energy again, we’ll do that ourselves but it gave us an extra dimension in the last games and I hope we can make them proud again.”
England’s women have also been practising for penalties in case of a shoot-out as Wiegman insisted Sweden will be a huge test for her players. They overcame Spain in the quarter finals and Sweden are the highest ranked nation left in the tournament as they are second in the FIFA rankings.
Wiegman added: “We’ve prepared for everything, we’ve talked about every scenario and then we’ll see how it develops tomorrow.
“I think it’s going to be a very tight game. They’re No2 in FIFA rankings. It’s a different style of game to Spain but we’ll be well prepared.”
Lionesses Lego
A specially designed Lego model of Old Trafford has been built in tribute to the Lionesses.
England star Lauren Hemp revealed last week she relaxes ahead of big games by building Lego after a life size model of the Euros trophy was put on show in Trafalgar Square.
Now Lego, one of the tournament sponsors, have built a replica of Old Trafford where England played their first game and it features all 11 players on the pitch.
It has gone on display at Legoland Discovery Centre in Manchester. Centre manager Jenn McDonough said: “As the tournament kicked off in Manchester, we thought what better way to celebrate the team than to give our MINILAND a footballing makeover.”
There will be a screening of the semi final clash in Trafalgar Square while Showcase Cinemas are showing the game at their venues free of charge with cinema go-ers just having to book tickets online.
Pundits survey results
Former England captain Faye White believes the Euros will help promote more women TV pundits.
BBC presenter Gabby Logan and pundit Alex Scott were the only two females to make a top ten list of popular TV presenters and pundits.
Ex-Arsenal star White said: “It’s important to see female pundits on the TV, ex-players that have played the game have a wealth of knowledge and know the players inside and out and have played with some of them.
“It’s good to see them progressing in the game going onto punditry and in the media.”
Bookmakers Betway carried out the survey among around 1,000 fans and White hopes getting more exposure and air time after the success of the Euros will help develop more female pundits across the whole of the game.
The most popular pundits in the survey were:
1. Ian Wright
2. Alan Shearer
3. Roy Keane
4. Gary Neville
5. Jamie Redknapp
6. Alex Scott
7. Gabby Logan
9. Jamie Carragher
10. Micah Richards
